Two classic Blizzard Entertainment games will be removed from the GOG platform on Dec. 13: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and Warcraft 2. GOG, which is a distribution platform known for selling DRM-free games, announced the departure in a news release published Monday.
“At GOG, we believe that games should live forever,” a representative posted to X on the official GOG account. “This means not only preserving them but also making sure they remain accessible, updated, and enjoyable on modern systems—everything the GOG Preservation Program is built to ensure. Yet, despite our dedication and best efforts, there are times when not everything goes as we’d hoped.”
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was originally released in 1994, followed by Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft 2: Beyond the Dark Portal in 1995 and 1996, respectively. The original real-time strategy game was a pivotal release for developer Blizzard Entertainment, reportedly among the top 20 CDs sold — across categories — in November 1995. These games were the starting point in the mega-popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft. Because of Warcraft and Warcraft 2’s ages, it hasn’t always been easy to play these classics on modern systems. They were released on GOG in 2019, shortly after Blizzard Entertainment and GOG put the original Diablo on the platform.
On GOG, Warcraft and Warcraft 2 had new features, like “multiplayer support over LAN and enhanced graphical options like antialiasing and anisotropic filtering.” A GOG representative confirmed to Polygon that the removal was at Blizzard Entertainment’s request, but declined to comment further. Blizzard Entertainment has not commented more explicitly as to why the games are now being pulled from the platform. We’ll update this story when it does.
However, Blizzard Entertainment did recently release Warcraft and Warcraft 2 on Battle.net — the original game is priced at $5.99, while Warcraft 2 is available for $9.99. Blizzard Entertainment also has recently released remastered versions of both games, available on Battle.net for $39.99. On GOG, both Warcraft and Warcraft 2 are currently priced at $14.99 total, but GOG is offering a discount code for a couple bucks off.
As part of its GOG Preservation Program, which was announced in November, the company is also vowing to continue to maintain even delisted games — like Warcraft and Warcraft 2. People who own those games won’t have to worry about the games becoming incompatible with newer technology and computers. Currently, there are 102 games in the GOG Preservation Program, which is GOG’s big push to keep classic games available on modern systems.
The post Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft 2 pulled from GOG platform appeared first on Polygon.
